1. Field
The following description relates to a method and apparatus for controlling rendering quality in real time.
2. Description of Related Art
Graphics processing units (GPUs) are high-performance graphics processing apparatuses that generate an image to be displayed on a screen by converting primitives formed of one or more vertexes to pixels on the screen and calculating a color value suitable for each pixel. Three-dimensional (3D) graphics rendering may be programmed by using an application program interface (API) such as DirectX or OpenGL which are standard APIs.
An API may enable setting a level-of-detail, such as the rendering quality of three-dimensional (3D) graphics rendered in many operations of a rendering pipeline. An example of a measurement for rendering quality may be a sampling rate that indicates, when texture is applied to a pixel, how many pixels will be used to sample the texture. When sampling is performed using a relatively large number of pixels, an image on the screen may be processed to be smoother. Accordingly, as the sampling rate increases, a more precise rendering product may be obtained, but a relatively large amount of calculation may be also required. In other words, the rendering quality is proportional to the amount of calculation performed by a GPU.
An increase in the amount of calculation performed causes an increase in the consumption of power by the GPU. In other words, a trade-off relation exists between a quality of a rendering product and the power consumed by the CPU. A 3D rendering technique has been used to implement a special effect in 3D games, such as a 3D flight simulator. Recently, the 3D rendering technique is being applied to general user experience (UX) related to devices in order to have an eye-catching effect. Accordingly, the proportion of power consumption with respect to 3D rendering has been gradually increasing in recent devices.
The rendering quality may be set by developers at a program modeling stage or by a user when a program is executed. Accordingly, renderings are performed according to rendering qualities that are preset regardless of how a user determines to use a device.